Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant Communities - ILRC

Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant CommunitiesJanuary 2003We suggest that each participant sign an agreement about mutual expectations beforeparticipating in the training program. This way everyone will know the expectations of everyoneelse. The agreement may indicate that the trainers will need to come prepared for each day oftraining, arrive on time, and perform their tasks in a professional and competent manner. Theagreement may indicate that the participants will need to attend every training (they should notmiss more than one or else it could hurt the group dynamics and the overall success of thetraining), arrive on time, not leave early, participate in the training exercises and small groupsessions, and do all their homework. For a sample contract and a cover letter to the leadersexplaining the program, please see Appendix 3-A.§ 3.7 Picking Staff and Others to Help Conduct the TrainingAs with all projects, it is important to pick the right staff members to help conduct the training.You want staff that is both committed to immigrants and to helping immigrants develop theirleadership skills and increasing their civic engagement activities. You want to pick staff that willwork hard to help make the program a success and will take training responsibilities seriously.All staff must prepare meticulously for training assignments. If you have trainers who refuse tofollow the curriculum you are using for the training and/or refuse to put in the necessary time tomake it a success, the training program will not be as successful as it should be. Additionally,training staff should be knowledgeable about civic participation and leadership. Finally, trainingstaff should be culturally sensitive to people from many different backgrounds. It would be idealif you had trainers that could speak the language of the participants and, if possible, trainers thatare from the same country and/or ethnic background as some of the participants.At various times throughout the training you may need to invite guest speakers to serve astrainers or to share their experiences about a selected topic or about being a leader in thecommunity. Guest speakers could include city government officials, other immigrant leaders,staff from community-based organizations, and members of the media. Similar to choosing staffmembers, who participate in the training, you must choose these guests carefully. You mustconsider people who will provide information and experiences that the other selected trainerscannot provide. You must select only guests who will be prepared to contribute and who will beable to work with and appreciate the backgrounds of the participants you have chosen and thegoals of your program.§ 3.8 Training LogisticsTo make sure the training is a success it is important to have someone in charge of taking care ofall the training logistics. We suggest doing the following:• Pick a location in the community where the leaders live. The location should be safeand clean and have sufficient room for all the participants. The site must have tablesor desks so the participants can write during the training, as well as chalkboards orflip charts big enough for the whole group to view. There should be sufficient room tobreak into smaller working groups during the training.3-7